Scott Hantz earned the 2004 victory at Columbus and is the current runner-up in the CRA Super Series points standings. In his previous four starts at Columbus he has posted three podium finishes.

In the previous six events all winners have started in the top eight positions and Hantz believes that will be important tonight. "In this series it’s always important to be in top eight and make the inversion. Being in the invert is always our goal."

As the season begins its stretch run, Hantz ranks second in the standings with an opportunity at the title. "I haven’t thought about championship all year, but after moving into second place thought maybe there is a chance. The wild card is my goal was to run Glass City 200 at Toledo. That is a conflict with Nashville. That might put the championship out of question."

It has been several years since Jim Crabtree Jr. has raced with CRA at Columbus, but he has back to back top 10 finishes on his resume at the .333-mile oval. His best finish was a sixth place finish in 2004. "Columbus is a nice track, it’s smooth and wide," said Crabtree. "It can be tough to pass on. If you’re going to pass a guy in front of you, might have to bump a little." Crabtree has raced a partial schedule this season with top-10 finishes to his credit.

Defending race winner Robbie Pyle returns to CRA this weekend with goals of becoming the first competitor to win multiple times at Columbus.

"Coming back home is always good thing," said Pyle. "We have a new Howe Car and it tested very good and excited about running it. Things have changed a lot in the cars since my win and even the track has changed since 2007. I have a lot of laps here with this being my hometrack at one point. To me it’s the same old Columbus. Any win is great but here it would be very special. I live in Chicago now, but winning in front of the family and friends would be great."

In the previous CRA Super Series event at Toledo Nick Gullatta scored his best career finish with crossing the finish line in fourth position.

"We haven’t raced here so it’s going to be a challenge. Our short track stuff is good so we’ll see if Toledo was a fluke or we can back that up with a really good run. We struggled in the first three races and I wasn’t happy with the car. Port City has helped us and the car is coming around pretty good," said Gullatta. The driver of the No. 131 R & D Racing Chevrolet added, "I want to start close to front. If we can keep the fenders on it and be up front we can go racing the last 25 laps."

Justin Alsp has competed in four events at Columbus in the Late Model division with two top-10 finishes.

"It’s nice to race at a track where you have experience. The Super Series drivers are always on their A Game, so I don’t think any track knowledge is going to help us over them. We hope our car can be setup good and we can qualify toward the front. Columbus is tough to pass. You can pass on the high side if your car is setup that way. You need the car to roll through center. If we can finish in top 5 it would be great nice for us," said Justin Alsip.

Series veteran Rick Turner finished ninth in the previous event at Toledo and continues to work on dialing in his new racecar.

"We got a new car going into this season and have struggled with the back end. We talked to Gary St. Amant and he helped us out for Columbus. We will see what happens. We are running a totally different tire than last time here. It’s going to be a lot different," said Turner.